In a transparent attempt to avoid discussion of anti-Islamic terrorism, Pete Hegseth and the virulently anti-Muslim evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress ignored the white supremacist hatred behind the New Zealand Muslim massacre and, instead, attacked the media for supposedly blaming Trump for the horrific incident.
At the start of the segment, Pete Hegseth quickly framed the BIG FOX Message (unfair victimization of Trump) while setting up the strawman (media blaming Trump for the shooting): “The world mourning the loss of life this week after the horrific New Zealand mosque attack that killed 50 people. In the wake of that attack many are asking how it happens in a place of worship and some pointing a finger not only at the shooter but even at the president and others.” (He provided no specifics about the finger pointing.)
Hegseth introduced Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Dr. Mehnez Afridi of the Genocide Education Center at Manhattan College, and Fox News contributor, Pastor Robert Jeffress. Addressing Dr. Afridi, Hegseth asked, “When you’re looking at blame, they want to point at the president and others. Who should we be looking at?”
Dr. Afridi obviously wasn’t following the Fox script when she talked about the need “not to be divisive.” Hegseth scowled when she said that we need better leaders “that can use language to calm us, to call out what we need to call out which is racism.” She cited Charleston and Pittsburgh and noted that this latest incident is frightening for Muslims, Jews, immigrants, and blacks. Rather than defend the president, she spoke about politicians “calling this out” and standing with the victims.
The rabbi had a similar message about racist hatred. He referred to the shooting as terrorism.
Instead of addressing what Afridi and Cooper said, Hegseth quickly brought the discussion back to the main theme of Trump being victimized. He addressed pastor Jeffress who did not disappoint: “It appears the talking heads are not taking a step back but moving forward and saying it’s President Trump’s fault.” (Again, no specifics.)
Jeffress, who once said that “Islam is an evil, evil religion,” responded on cue: “I think for the media to blame President Trump for this horrific tragedy is disingenuous. It’s dishonest and it’s dangerous. Look, the media knows what they’re doing when they try to equate a president’s use of the word *'invasion' to refer to the very real problem of a thousand illegals crossing our southern border daily, when they try to equate that with this madman’s use of the term 'invaders' to refer to these poor innocent Muslims who were living in their own country.”
He continued to advance the theme about the evil media: "I think it is the height of hypocrisy for the media to cry these crocodile tears over the hatred and the divisiveness in our country when they’re the very ones stoking that hatred and divisiveness by their own blatant dishonesty."
Hegseth spread some nice Fox hatred when he attacked "mouthpiece for the left" Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He read one of her tweets, in which she said that the term, “thoughts and prayers” is used by the NRA to deflect discussion away from policy change during tragedies. To her immense credit Dr. Afridi said that while she believes in thoughts and prayers, she believes in action and noted that the last terrorist incidents have been perpetrated by white nationalists who need to be investigated.
The rabbi spoke of the need for security at houses of worship and also urged the FBI to look at domestic terrorism.
Hegseth diverted the discussion away from the issue of anti-Islamic hate groups and Trump's role in enabling the hate by asking Jeffress about the power of prayer. Jeffress preached his trademark venom: “We talked last week about how the Democrat party is becoming a godless party and here’s one more piece of evidence of that, their marquee star ridiculing the power of prayer and look, no Christian I know believes that you shouldn’t do anything except pray but we do believe prayer is the most important thing we can do. It’s like somebody said, there are many things you can do after you have prayed, but there’s nothing more important that you can do until you have prayed.”
Talk about stoking hatred!
Watch it below, from the March 17, 2019 Fox & Friends.
*During his recent veto ceremony Trump used the word "invaders", to describe immigrants at our Southern border. It was the same word used in the manifesto of the New Zealand mosque shooter.
And as noted by Ellen, Jeffress is the only panelist who’s overtly (and rabidly) political. Though it can be argued he’s being deliberately agitated by Hegseth’s leading and partisan questioning.
Jeffress’ political bile is as predictable as it is hypocritical. The media most responsible for making AOC the “mouthpiece of the left” and “[the Democrat’s] marque star” is Fox News following the script of the RNC. The RNC is pimping hard the scary “socialist” label and elevating her to the leader of the Democratic Party. It’s funny. Pelosi used to be Republicans’ big bogyman. Now Nancy has been replaced because they realize her leadership in the House has repeatedly outsmarted them and her popularity is rising.
Also, despite Jeffress’ whining the Democratic Party has gone all-in on atheism, it’s been widely documented Trump is a Christian in self-declared name only. Which is true of many conservatives who I refer to as “cultural Christians” because they identify culturally to Christianity superficially but aren’t remotely spiritual. I even question Jeffress’ belief system because he routinely puts Republican politics (which is often antithetical to Christian theology) before the teachings of Christ.